Designing Emotion-Capable Robots

There's an interesting
discussion on the LinkedIn AI Research forum
surrounding a 2005 PhD paper by Afshin Ganjoo, "Designing
Emotion-Capable Robots, One Emotion at a Time" (PDF format). Afshin
is hoping generate some interest among robot builder in trying to
actually implement his model. While there was general agreement that
true intelligence is impossible without emotion, there were some
differing ideas on how to get there. Anne van Rossum, a researcher at
Almende B.V., suggested an evolutionary neuroconstructivist approach to
emotion is necessary. The argument being that humans could not select
appropriate categories of emotion whereas an evolutionary approach might
result in more natural emotions. Sindhu Joseph, a researcher at
IIIA-CSIC, offered a third
option, that we first needed robots with a level of cognition that
allowed them to evaluate past experience and form beliefs, which would
lead to the natural evolution of emotions. In response, Afshin makes
this observation:

When we design a robot with two legs, or six legs, we are
borrowing concepts from nature that has already evolved. When we give
robots sensory devices such as cameras and heat sensors, we are
borrowing from creatures which have already evolved. Even the hard
supporters of producing intelligence out of neural nets like the ones
we humans developed, and allow those neural nets to evolve or learn
their own connections and structures, we are borrowing intelligence
structures from things which evolved outside the realm of robotics. So,
it is not so much “define vs. evolve” but rather “at what point do you
want to break away from what has already evolved, and allow your
creation to start evolving on its own.”

If you're a robot builder interested in implementing Afshin's ideas
for emotion-capable robots, you can contact him through
LinkedIn.